Conway, Josephine (1920-2007)

NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-768064

Biographies

Josephine Conway is a feminist activist who has made a difference to the lives of women living in New South Wales' Hunter Valley District for over thirty years. Best known for her long term involvement in the Right to Choose Abortion Coalition, she remains active in the Women’s Electoral Lobby, the Hunter Valley Home-Birth Group, Women’s Action against Global Violence, the Union of Australian Women, Jobs for Women and the Women’s Action Group. In 2005, as a mark of appreciation and respect for her commitment to the promotion of women's issues, she was awarded the National Foundation For Australian Women's Edna Ryan Award for Community Activism.

In 1972 Josephine Conway, a woman in her fifties, was nursing at William Lyne Hospital at Waratah, when she saw a Women’s Electoral Lobby newsletter in the change-room. From this epiphanic moment on, she became an activist for women’s rights, with a strong belief in the slogan, ‘the personal is political’. In 1979, on returning from a trip to Canada, USA and Mexico where she observed the conditions for women, she formed the Waratah Discussion Group. When her husband died in 1979 she moved to Cook’s Hill, Newcastle, Australia and opened up a Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL) office in her new home. This later became the Women’s Information Service. From here she ran phone-ins on rape, women’s property rights in marriage and home-birth.

Josephine campaigned strongly for women’s right to Freedom from Violence and participated in setting up the first Newcastle Women’s Refuge, Jenny’s Place. She also focussed on Equal Employment Rights .

After joining WEL in 1972 she saw women’s right to safe abortion as a major concern, a position influenced by her experience of work as a nurse. In 1982 she convened the Right to Choose Abortion Coalition and sent abortion literature around New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. She collected hundreds of signatures, sent thousands of postcards and networked with other groups.

In the 1990s she set up the Josephine Conway Fund, administered by the National Foundation for Australian Women, to promote women’s right to abortion. She continued her work as a committed feminist activist until her death at the age of 87.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

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Selected resources (1)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Private Hands (contact Australian Women's Archive Project): The Papers of Josephine Conway
    Joesphine Conway's papers are unsorted but will be made available to the public shortly.

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  1. Conway, Josephine (1920-2007)
    ... Josephine Conway is a feminist activist who has made a difference to the lives of women living in ...
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  1. Written by herself : an anthology / edited and with an introduction by Jill Ker Conway
    Conway, Jill K., 1934-
    [ Book : 1992-1998 ]
    read online at Open Library/Internet Archive
    View online
    At 60 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.178)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.178)

  2. Design history : a student's handbook / edited by Hazel Conway
    Conway, Hazel
    [ Book : 1987-1992 ]
    At 33 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.177)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.177)

  3. Sermons / St. Leo the Great ; translated by Jane Patricia Freeland, Agnes Josephine Conway
    Leo I Pope, d. 461
    [ Book : 1946-2004 ]
    Languages: French, Latin, English
    At 18 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.137)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.137)

  4. The Harry Conway family in history / by Harold L. Conway
    Conway, Harold L., 1936-
    [ Book : 1997 ]
    This resource may only be vaguely related to your query: matching terms may only have been found in the full text contents of the resource (score: 0.09)

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  1. Our modern maidens / story and continuity by Josephine Lovett ; a Jack Conway production ; directed by Jack Conway
    Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
    [ Video : 1929-2010 ]
    At RMIT Library
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  2. Stella Maris
    Grapevine Video
    [ Video : 1917-2000 ]
    At 3 libraries
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  3. The twilight zone. CBS Worldwide Inc. ; created by Rod Serling
    Image Entertainment (Firm)
    [ Video : 1959-2010 ]
    At 12 libraries
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  1. Southeastern Utah Oral Histories
    Gary Shumway
    [ Unpublished : 1963 ]
    View online (access conditions)
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  2. King, Karl Vernon
    William Henry King, Samuel Andrew King, Creighton King, Karl Vernon King
    [ Unpublished : 1899 ]
    View online (access conditions)
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  3. Papers of William Morris Hughes
    Hughes, W. M. (William Morris), 1862-1952
    [ Unpublished : 1865-1958 ]
    View online
    At National Library
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  1. Website: Australian Women's Archives Project
    www.womenaustralia.info
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  2. Website: Women's Electoral Lobby Australia
    www.wel.org.au
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  3. Website: Putting skirts on the sacred benches : women candidates for the New South Wales Parliament
    www.womenaustralia.info
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    This resource may have relevance to your query (score: 0.011)

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  1. Sin.(Brief Article)
    Conway, Anne-Marie
    TLS. Times Literary Supplement
    [ Article : 1992 ]
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  2. Nationalizing and segregating performance: Josephine Baker and stardom in Zouzou (1934).(Critical essay)
    Balcerzak, Scott
    Post Script
    [ Article : 2006 ]
    View online (conditions apply)
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  3. Sermons (review)
    Brannan, P. T.
    [ Article : 1997 ]
    View online (access conditions)
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  4. Ellsworth Gilbert and his Metropolitan Singers
    [ Article ]
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  1. Maffra Catholic Ball Debs.
    Gippsland Times (Vic. : 1861 - 1954) Monday 8 June 1953 p 3 Article Illustrated
    ... Maffra Catholic Ball Debs. I Back Row: Eileen Dwyer, Jean Bennett, Lois Adams, Edna Cameron, Delores Cummins, Veronica Wyatt, Mary Dwyer. Front Row: Barbara Canali, Josephine Fink, Pam Cotterill, Mrs. Coleman (trainer of Debs.), Margaret Coleman, Mar garet Conway, Beulah Flanagan. Ronald Gorman ... 44 words
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  2. OF SOCIAL INTEREST
    The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Wednesday 22 January 1941 p 6 Article
    ... to Hobart after a holiday In Melbourne and at Bowral, N.S.W. * » » » Miss Josephine Mack has returned to Launceston after a holiday spent in New South Wales. * * » » Mrs. M. Conway, Miss C. B. Doodie, arid Mr. M. L. Conway, of Launceston, arc spend- ing a holiday in a motor tour of the West Coast. ... 115 words
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  3. MATRIMONIAL
    Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954) Sunday 11 June 1911 p 26 Article
    ... MATRIMONIAL MATRIMONIAL! The following marriages are J arranged to take place at an j early date :- j George Conway Dow, Perth, J to Josephine Dobson, Perth. ] Robert Milne, Perth, to Net- j lie Louisa Boys, West Perth, j Ernest Francis Leopold War- J tin, Perth, to Sophia Maria ] Barnes, Perth. ... 94 words
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